UT Professor Bars Armed Concealed Carry Permit Holders from Class

A University of Texas professor opposed to campus carry says he will put a note in his fall syllabus informing armed concealed permit holders they are not welcome to take his classes.

According to the Austin American-Statesman, Professor Steven Weinberg, a physicist who won the Nobel Prize in 1979, spoke up during a recent UT Faculty Council to make clear that he will ban guns for self-defense in his classroom, whether or not the university president takes action to do so.

Weinberg said, “I will put it into my syllabus that the class is not open to students carrying guns.” He acknowledged that taking the unilateral action may land him in court, but he added that he is “willing to accept that possibility.”

Weinberg’s position is in line with UT neuroscience Professor Max Snodderly, who urged the university’s president to designate all “classrooms, dormitories, and offices” gun-free zones, according to the Los Angeles Times.

It should be noted that Virginia Tech and Umpqua Community College were both governed by gun-free policies similar to those pursued by Weinberg and Snodderly when both campuses were attacked. On April 16, 2007, Seung Hui-Cho went classroom to classroom shooting unarmed students, killing 32. On October 1, 2015, Chris Harper Mercer entered classrooms and shot and killed nine unarmed students and faculty members.